02 January 2019

The money quote about this study comes from a recent piece at National Review:

The views of one cluster on the left wing of the electorate are sharply
differentiated from the rest of the survey pool. This group is
christened “Progressive Activists” and described as “younger, highly
engaged, secular, cosmopolitan, angry.” They make up 8 percent of the
population and their demographics are predictable: disproportionately
white, educated [sic], and wealthy. They are more than twice as likely as
other Americans to report that politics is a “hobby.”

In other words, they're out of touch, privileged, virtue-signalling elites. But I don't see those folks viewing politics as a "hobby." Rather, by reading their twitter feeds/posts you will quickly come to the conclusion that politics is, for them, an obsession bordering on a religion.

And this . . .

Their views cut sharply against the grain of popular consensus.
Seventy-eight percent of Americans describe themselves as “proud to be
an American,” whereas 69 percent of Progressive Activists report that
they are “ashamed to be an American.” Seventy-three percent of Americans
value the American Dream, but only 44 percent of Progressive Activists
do. Eighty percent of Americans agree that political correctness is a
problem, a view that only 30 percent of Progressive Activists hold.

These facts explain so much of what you read on Twitter, hear on CNN and read in the WAPO, NYT and see coming out of our colleges and universities.

I hope you all have had a very Merry Christmas and are enjoying the New Year! As I continue to test themes and layouts for the new website and blog, I think I've finally settled on an overall theme and design. While the look and name is different, the central focus remains the same:

"Exploring and
celebrating American history, heritage, adventure and tradition."

I hope to explain later about the evolution, name change and redirection in a detailed blog post. There is method behind the madness. Due to business issues, some family health challenges and other intervening events, this is taking longer than I'd planned. There are, as always, a number of things going with my research and writing that don't make it to this blog. Hopefully, that will change with the new website/blog.One thing I love about the new platform is how well high resolution images display. I think it really brings a higher level of attractiveness and professionalism to my work.

In any event, please visit my new online home and watch for the first blog post coming soon.

27 December 2018

It is amazing (and entertaining) to observe grown men and women regress into adolescence on Twitter. Does Twitter transform everyone into 14 year olds? Apparently so. I have to wonder if these folks ever go back and read their tweets and realize their absolute juvenile character. LOL.

22 December 2018

"I must side either with or against my section or country. I cannot raise my hand against my birthplace, my home, my children." ~ Robert E. Lee

I heard a recruitment ad for the National Guard yesterday morning on a local radio station. The announcer encouraged those interested in serving to sign up so they could serve and protect "family, community and country."

The ad lists the motivations for "serving"; listing one's love of family first. I don't think that was random or accidental. I was immediately reminded of Robert E. Lee's words; which express identical sentiments.

18 December 2018

Forty-two percent of Southerners said to leave Civil War memorials
alone, according to the poll released Wednesday. While 28 percent said
to add a plaque for context and historical interpretation, nearly
one-fourth want to move the statutes to a museum. Only 5 percent want to
remove them completely.

I'm still tweaking the new website, but plan to have it fully functional and will begin posting there regularly by the first of the year. There will be some design revisions before that happens. I'm really excited about the new site and the new direction.

I'll cross post here for a while before retiring this blog.

I hope to finish the proposal for my next book which will be considered by a major publishing house.

07 December 2018

You decide. Stanford wanted a fraternity to strike its colors - the American flag. Their reaction?

In protest of Mr. Z’s suggestion, the house declined to remove the flag, instead choosing to replace it with an even bigger one. . . . The vilification of our nation and its symbols is damning for the social fabric of American society.

Indeed. By design.

Kudos to the fraternity. Maybe Stanford should refuse all those American dollars with George Washington's face on them. Some folks' virtue signalling goes only so far.More here.

06 December 2018

States with high [homeschool] regulation (all the above regulations, plus other requirements — e.g., curriculum approval by the state, teacher qualification of parents or home visits by state officials) include Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Source. Note that much of the least free states in this report are in the Northeast. Other reports/studies show similar results. This is due (at least in part) to the legacy of the Puritans who, as we know, were hard on dissenters. Watch the video below for the latest Puritan attack on freedom. Here's the latest example of a modern day witch hunt:

03 December 2018

I think I may write a book exploring the tweets of academic historians, Hollywood celebs (hard to tell the difference these days), Fake News types and whacky politicians.. If I do, I'm going to call it Tweets from Twistorians or How to Use Twitter to Destroy Your Credibility.

Some real money quotes out there. LOL. I'm collecting and cataloguing them for future generations.

(I'm serious, though it won't be my next book. That's one's already in the pipeline.)

01 December 2018

Millennials will surpass their ‘Baby Boomer’ parents in 2019 as the largest adult generation and will subsequently become the largest U.S. voter demographic.

Boomers born between 1946 and 1964 were the hippie “drugs, sex and rock-and-roll” liberal Democrats of the late 1960s and early 1970s. But after launching into the adulthood of marriage, mortgages, babies and paying taxes, Boomers evolved into the conservative voter demographic that elected Republicans as four of the next six presidents.

Millennials voted as liberals in 2018 because they got off to about a seven-year delay on the road to adulthood. But with Millennials playing catch-up on marriage, mortgages, babies and paying taxes, don’t be surprised if Millennials start voting for their own economic interests and morph into another dominant conservative voter demographic over the next four decades.

30 November 2018

But they choose to ignore it. And they wonder why fly-over country laughs at and mocks them.

When articles of almost comically low quality become an acceptable norm
of supposedly prestigious academic journals, the accompanying erosion of
rigor also removes academia’s defenses against research with much
deeper structural deficiencies—including the misuse of evidence and
related forms of scholarly misconduct. ~ Historian Phil Magness

29 November 2018

I had a great time giving a presentation at the Wayne Theater in my hometown last night; despite the fact the laptop we were using for the PowerPoint crashed and I had to improvise on the fly. Made some new friends, saw some old ones and made some great contacts. A historian who earned his PhD in American history studying under Professor George Rable at the University of Alabama introduced himself to me after my talk and volunteered to assist us at the Waynesboro Heritage Foundation. That alone was worth the effort!

28 November 2018

I just received an invitation from a major publishing house to submit a proposal for my next book. It came as a bit of a surprise and I'm not quite to that point. This will be a major project on a topic that's not been thoroughly examined. I've gathered most of the research, written much of the introduction and have a rough chapter outline.I have lots to contemplate over the next few days. More to come in the weeks ahead. Also, I'll begin posting soon at OldSchoolWorks.com on a regular basis.

I also gave a talk last night at our local theater about the Battle of Waynesboro. I'll post some comments about that within a few days.

Thanks to all of you who have been faithful readers through the last 12 1/2 years.

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